Voltron

Guest Author - Lesley Aeschliman

Voltron is an anime program that premiered in the United States in the fall of 1984. This series was made up of two robot shows brought over from Japan: King of the Beasts, GoLion and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV (both of which were originally produced by Toei Animation and Bandai).

When these series were brought over from Japan, World Events (the company that produced Voltron) edited out as much of the violence and pathos contained in the original series as they possibly could. Originally, World Events was going to dub a third series from Japan called Light Speed Electric God Albegas to be a third Voltron. However, when the ratings numbers were coming in, Lion Force Voltron (the series that had GoLion as its base) had solid ratings. So World Events decided to produce their own second season of the Lion Force Voltron series. In addition, World Events also produced a one-hour special titled "Fleet of Doom," where the two Voltrons meet and fight side by side.

In the Lion Force Voltron series, five space explorers escape from Planet Doom and crash land on Planet Arus. They discover the Castle of Lions, as well as Princess Allura and Coran (the royal advisor). Coran and Allura share the legend of Voltron with the space explorers. The explorers are given the five keys to pilot the robot lions (blue, yellow, green, red, and black) that come together to form the mighty robot Voltron. Early on in the series, one of the space explorers is badly hurt by one of Witch Haggar's Robeasts and is sent to the hospital planet.

After he leaves, Princess Allura ends up taking his place and becomes the pilot of the Blue Lion. The Voltron Force must battle King Zarkon, his son Lotor, Witch Haggar, and other foes when Arus or other planets in the galaxy are under attack. It is stressed several times in the series that Voltron is to be used for defense, not offense.

In the Vehicle Voltorn series, the Galaxy Alliance's home planets have become overcrowded and a fleet of space explorers have been sent to search for new planets to colonize. Unfortunately, the fleet attracts the attention of the Drule Empire, and the Drules do anything they can to interfere with the space explorers' mission.

The Voltron used in this series was made up of 15 members (divided into three teams with five members). The three teams were known as the Land, Sea, and Air teams. Each team could combine their vehicles into a bigger machine, and if absolutely necessary, all 15 could come together to form Voltron.

In 1998, World Events produced a new Voltron series called Voltron: The Third Dimension. It was a computer animated series that was set five years after the end of the original Lion Force Voltron series.